Thankfulness Under Stress

I am the queen of stress! I’m not proud of this fact, but it’s true. I’m pretty sure I am the most stressful person I know. And if I’m not I think I’m pretty close to it.

Do I like being stressed? No! In fact I can’t stand feeling stressed. When I’m stressed I hurt in so many different places. My head. My ears. My jaw. My stomach and the list goes on. So why am I stressed so often? I have trouble when it comes to praying and letting it all go and giving it all to God.

This isn’t something I’m proud of. If I could change this one thing about me I would do it in a second. Instead it takes work. It shouldn’t but it does. I should be able to give all my worries to God and let Him deal with it all. After all the Bible does say in Matthew 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The Bible also says in 1Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

At the beginning of this week I was telling my husband how I can’t take this stress anymore. It hurt and I wanted it to stop. I asked him if there was a devotion we could do together at night that would help me get control over this.

He liked the idea of doing devotions with me so he started looking for something related to stress. My husband found something on his Bible app that we could read together and we did. Problem with that was reading it and getting something out of what I was reading was two different things.

Then he found some devotional videos we could watch. The first one we watched was Monday night. In that devotion we learned to give thanks to God in all situations. No matter what. Whatever might be stressing me I need to turn that around and find something in that to thank God for.

That night after our devotions we prayed together. My husband went first and he thanked God for so many things and as I listened I could feel something stirring in my own heart and I started to cry. Then I started to laugh and went right back to crying. It felt good to cry during my husbands prayer. It was something I needed. I was being reminded of all that we have and how good God is to us in all situations. It was my turn to pray and I have to say it wasn’t easy to pray and cry at the same time, but it was well worth it.

Tuesday night we did our video devotion again and I was reminded to give God all my burdens and leave them at his feet. I was reminded that He will take care of me. I also learned that I need to remember to let my brain tell my heart what to feel instead of my heart telling me brain what to feel.

That isn’t easy for me which is probably one of the reasons why I always feel so much stress.

Today is Wednesday and I have to say I feel more relaxed today then I have in a while. I am reminding myself to stop when I start to feel stressed about something and find at least one positive thing to thank God for.

I have to say doing that does seem to work. I don’t know why I’m so surprised.

Today I was taking down our Christmas lights from outside our house. I was feeling stress free and thinking about our devotions. I was reminded that I serve a might God who is sitting on His throne in Heaven and He is taking care of me. I need to remember to always give my burdens and stress to Him and He will take care of me.

I am praying that my husband and I will keep watching our video devotions every night. I am praying that I will get better every day at not stressing and giving it all to God. I’m sure with me being human I will have some set backs here and there, but I will be doing my best to make sure whenever I start to feel stressed about something that I will stop and find at least one thing at that moment to thank God for.